The Southeast Missouri State University Debate Team came home victorious after a debate tournament at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana, from Oct. 21 and 22.

For this final tournament of the semester, the team was able to take four teams, all of which earned an award.

Senior Collin Ritter won second place speaker, sophmore Gregory Johnson third speaker, and senior Jo Nell Coughill palced 14th at the varsity level.

Sophomores Grace Lester and Jackie Harris finished placed fourth team at the novice level.

Lester also placed third speaker and sophomore Jordan Keel placed fifth speaker at the novice level.

In this tournament, the team capitalized on the success of Ritter, Johnson and Coughill at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh last month.

“I would say considering all the things that happened to us this semester, we handled it well,” Keel said.

With the fall semester schedule ending, the team looks to go over what went well this semester and prepare for the spring semester.

“I thought it went well, but could have gone even better and will next semester,”Ritter said.

The topic debated at the tournament was, “The U.S. should prioritize the humanitarian needs of refugees,” and was operated by the National Educational Debate Association (NEDA), as was the case during the first tournament in Pittsburgh.

The general idea for the competition year is to have a value topic in the first semester and a policy topic in the second semester. NEDA operates this way to allow for both types of debate to take place in a single academic year.

A meeting of National Communication Association will be held in Philadelphia next week, that director and faculty adviser of the debate team, Avery Henry, will attend .

“We’ll meet then and discuss and vote on what second semester topics should be and we’re going to discuss who wants to host tournaments,” Henry said.

A school in the New York City and Newark, New Jersey, area will likely host nationals, while traditional schools like Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, could possibly be host of a tournament, though selection is usually based on who wants to host.

The goal for Southeast’s team next semester is simple: to win nationals again.

For students interested in joining, the team has an open-door policy on joining, though there is no guarantee new members would be able to travel for the upcoming semester.

For more information on joining the team, students may contact Henry at ahenry@semo.edu.